As President Lyndon B. Johnson further pushed America into the quagmire of the Vietnam War, the fight there started to look as if it was not going to be such an easy battle for the soldiers. In fact, the fight was different than the conventional type in which America was used to. The fighting was intense as the superior war machines and weapons were useless with the guerilla war in which the North Vietnamese soldiers waged. Casualties were beyond thought as everyday hundreds of young men were carried back home in body bags. As replacements, the Army needed an influx of young men to join the fight to help the country defeat the enemy.
For high school graduates from poor families and in lower class found the war as a direct chance for them to escape the poverty with a chance to go to college after their tour of duty. However, the larger fraction of the students knew better.
With college education, they realized that the war was going to get them killed. With the lack of enlisting men to completely balance the need of new soldiers, the US government initialized the military draft.
Brief SummeryAs President Lyndon B. Johnson further pushed America into the quagmire of the Vietnam War, the fight there started to look as if it was not going to be such an easy battle for the soldiers. In fact, the fight was different than the conventional type in which America was used to. The fighting was intense as the superior war machines and weapons were useless with the guerilla war in which the North Vietnamese soldiers waged. Casualties were beyond thought as everyday hundreds of young men were carried back home in body bags. As replacements, the Army needed an influx of young men to join the fight to help the country defeat the enemy.
For high school graduates from poor families and in lower class found the war as a direct chance for them to escape the poverty with a chance to go to college after their tour of duty. However, the larger fraction of the students knew better.
With college education, they realized that the war was going to get them killed. With the lack of enlisting men to completely balance the need of new soldiers, the US government initialized the military draft.
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Students of the Era